Sherpaland, CO, USA

Even as Mt Everest Day was marked in Nepal on 29 May, on the other side of the planet in the US state of Colorado, dozens of Nepalis who have climbed the world’s highest peak multiple times were busy working as chefs and Uber drivers.

Danuru Sherpa’s father was part of the 1953 expedition to Mt Everest that put Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the summit. He later climbed Kangchenjunga, Ama Dablam and Annapurna with Hillary’s son, Peter.

Danuru grew up in this climbing family in Phortse with seven other siblings, and as a teenager became a high altitude porter and guide.

He was only 18 when he climbed Everest for the first time in 1998. Since then he has sumitted 16 times. In 2006 Spring, he got to the top twice in the same season.

“Mountaineering made me famous, but it was seasonal work. It did not bring enough money to support my family,” says Danuru, 46, who has two daughters and a son. He came to the US in 2013, and is now a chef at Sherpa House in Boulder.

But climbing is a passion, and on the side he has climbed Mt Denali in Alaska, and guides climbing groups in the Rockies. He says, “I want to do Everest again till I am 60, but Nepal should take better care of mountaineers like us. Climbing is dangerous and the insurance is not enough.”

Danuru’s elder brother Panuru also climbed Everest for the first time in 1993, and in 2021 made his 16th summit. He has since emigrated to America, guiding climbers in Alaska, and goes on skiing expeditions in his free time. He also works at Sherpa House.

There are 100 Sherpas in Colorado, and 25 of them are multiple Everest summiteers. There are 27 just from Phortse in the state, and six have climbed Everest 34 times between them.

Tashi Sherpa has climbed Everest 17 times, and is a Uber driver in Denver. On the side, he trains climbers in Colorado’s mountains. Jangbu Sherpa is also a 10-time Everest summiteer who works as a chef at Everest House.

Also in Colorado is Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, the first Nepali woman to become a UIAA certified mountaineering instructor, and one of the first Nepali women to reach the summit of K2.

Nima Doma Sherpa trained herself to be a mountaineer and climbed Everest in memory of her husband who was killed in the Khumbu Icefall avalanche in 2014.

“One of the reasons Sherpas are emigrating is because there is no support mechanism for families whose members are killed in mountaineering accidents,” says Nima Doma.

“When a soldier dies, the state declares him a martyr and provides compensation, and pension to his family. When a support climber dies, his family is forgotten.”

The House of Sherpa

Lhakpa Sherpa was born 50 years ago in the tiny village of Syangma. As a boy he remembers going to Namche Bazar, making a perilous crossing of the foaming Dudh Kosi. Namche was like a city compared to Syangma.

He lived with his parents and two other siblings who had to walk the roundtrip of six hours six days a week to school. There was a wooden log over huge boulders on which they balanced themselves precariously to cross the river. When floods washed away the log, they couldn’t go to school for weeks.

During summer holidays, Lhakpa and his siblings joined their parents to take yaks to high pasture. The family cooked and ate potatoes and buckwheat they planted on their terraced farm.

Lhakpa became the first boy in Syangma to graduate from high school, and then went to college in Kathmandu, working in restaurants and guiding trekking groups to earn money. Tourism was booming in Nepal in the 1990s, and he dropped out of college to guide groups.

Lhakpa had watched planes landing in Syangboche and Lukla, and had always wanted to be a pilot. He went to the United States and joined flying school, while running his company, Sherpa Landscaping.

The business took off, and there was no time anymore to complete pilot training.

Winters were less busy, so in 2009 he decided to open a restaurant in Golden, near Denver. Not just any restaurant, but one that represented Nepal and his Sherpa culture.

He visited Nepal every year and brought back traditional items to decorate his Sherpa House Restaurant and Culture Centre.

It became an instant hit, even more successful than his landscape company. What was supposed to be a side gig quickly became his main business.

At an intersection in picturesque Golden, with the Rockies forming a backdrop to the west, Sherpa House is immediately recognisable from afar.

On one side is a monastery, a gift shop at the other, and the restaurant in the middle. The interior décor of intricately carved displays also has an antique shortwave radio and old tape recorder, giving the space a feeling of 1980s Khumbu.

The restaurant has 600 customers every day and the queue gets long in the evenings. Most diners are Americans, with a sprinkling of people of Nepali or Indian origin. The chefs and two dozen restaurant workers are constantly busy on the momo assembly line.

In 2013, Lhakpa and partners opened the Sherpa Brewery in Chitwan, and the beer imported from Nepal is popular here.

“Business is not just about profit,” says Lhakpa. “It is also a service, that is why maybe a restaurant is called a service industry.”

With a part of the profits from the venture Lhakpa has started the charity Hike for Help that has helped rebuild his old school in Khumbu that was damaged in the earthquake, added a dorm and built health posts.

He has upgraded the trail from Syangma to Namche where he used to walk back and forth as a boy. There is now a suspension bridge where there used to be a log across the boulders of the Dudh Kosi.

Says Lhakpa: “I don’t calculate what percentage of the profit should go to charity. I give when it is needed, as much as needed.”

Dreaming big in America

When Pemba Sherpa flew out of Kathmandu airport in 1999, he was 19. He had $200 cash in his pocket, a suitcase, a sleeping bag, and a dream. An American dream.

Born in 1971 in Syangma of Khumbu in a family with five siblings, he watched planes take off and land at Lukla airfield on the other side of the river, while grazing the family’s 25 yaks.

Every day he walked three hours to Chaurikharka to school, and three hours back. He dropped out at Grade 4 and started portering. His first job paid him Rs60 hauling a load of 30kg on his back up the trail — the first time he saw money.

On his first visit to Kathmandu, he was amazed by the tall buildings, the crowds and cars. He guided trekkers, and learnt a smattering of English. One of his trekking clients was an American, who sponsored his first trip to the US.

Adjusting to life and surviving in America was initially as difficult as hauling trekking gear to Everest Base Camp. He washed cars, worked as a gardener, and did dishes.

He did not know anyone in Colorado, was often homesick, and drooled remembering his mother’s cooking.

This was not the dream he had about America, and he thought of heading back to Nepal. But he hardened his resolve, joined English language classes, memorised words all night, sticking them to the walls of his room.

He got himself a college degree, and was hired by a Colorado-based trekking company. He struck out on his own to set up a travel company, taking American clients to Nepal, Tanzania, Bhutan, Pakistan and other places on treks.

“I remember there was one Thai International flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu in which 90% of the passengers were my clients,” recalls Pemba. But then the Maoist conflict killed Nepal’s tourism industry, the Kathmandu office closed and many lost their jobs.

The collapse of tourism opened up other avenues for Pemba, who then invested in real estate just at the right time to make millions. He now has 12 properties in Boulder alone, including one that houses his Sherpa Adventure and Restaurant that employs 40 fellow-Nepalis.

He got himself a commercial pilot’s license in 2009. But his dream of starting an airline in Nepal was thwarted by unstable politics back home. He bought himself a 4-seater Piper Arrow and flies around the United States in it.

The success of Starbucks inspired him to make a foray into, not coffee, but tea. He studied the market and launched the Sherpa Chai brand. It took off, and its seven flavours sell in 3,000 stores across the US. It had a $2.7 million turnover last year, and Pemba is aiming to hit $50 million.

The company imports $30,000 worth of Nepali tea every month from gardens in Phidim, though it is more expensive than other teas.

But wherever he flies, Pemba’s heart is still in Syangmo. He has helped build suspension bridges, upgrade trekking trails, repair schools after the 2015 earthquake, and even set up a small hydroelectric plant to light up Syangmo at night. His memoir Bridging Worlds: A Sherpa’s Story has won awards.

Pemba Sherpa has not given up on Nepal, and says his life is proof that no matter where a person is born, success is not possible without struggle and hard work.

He adds, “Nepal has huge potential, we just have to improve governance and rise above our obsessions with ethnicity and caste.”